Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1. What Is Red Hat Single Sign-On?

Red Hat Single Sign-On (RH-SSO) is an integrated sign-on solution available as a Red Hat JBoss Middleware for OpenShift containerized image. The RH-SSO for OpenShift image provides an authentication server for users to centrally log in, log out, register, and manage user accounts for web applications, mobile applications, and RESTful web services.

Red Hat offers multiple OpenShift application templates utilizing the RH-SSO for OpenShift image version number 7.2. These define the resources needed to develop Red Hat Single Sign-On 7.2 server based deployment and can be split into the following two categories:

  • Templates using HTTPS and JGroups keystores and a truststore for the RH-SSO server, all prepared beforehand. These secure the TLS communication using passthrough TLS termination:

    • sso72-https: RH-SSO 7.2 backed by internal H2 database on the same pod.
    • sso72-mysql: RH-SSO 7.2 backed by ephemeral MySQL database on a separate pod.
    • sso72-mysql-persistent: RH-SSO 7.2 backed by persistent MySQL database on a separate pod.
    • sso72-postgresql: RH-SSO 7.2 backed by ephemeral PostgreSQL database on a separate pod.
    • sso72-postgresql-persistent: RH-SSO 7.2 backed by persistent PostgreSQL database on a separate pod.

  • Templates using OpenShift’s internal service serving x509 certificate secrets to automatically create the HTTPS keystore used for serving secure content. The JGroups cluster traffic is authenticated using the AUTH protocol and encrypted using the ASYM_ENCRYPT protocol. The RH-SSO server truststore is also created automatically, containing the /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/service-ca.crt CA certificate file, which is used to sign the certificate for HTTPS keystore. Moreover, the truststore for the RH-SSO server is pre-populated with the all known, trusted CA certificate files found in the Java system path. These templates secure the TLS communication using re-encryption TLS termination:

    • sso72-x509-https: RH-SSO 7.2 with auto-generated HTTPS keystore and RH-SSO truststore, backed by internal H2 database. The ASYM_ENCRYPT JGroups protocol is used for encryption of cluster traffic.
    • sso72-x509-mysql-persistent: RH-SSO 7.2 with auto-generated HTTPS keystore and RH-SSO truststore, backed by persistent MySQL database. The ASYM_ENCRYPT JGroups protocol is used for encryption of cluster traffic.
    • sso72-x509-postgresql-persistent: RH-SSO 7.2 with auto-generated HTTPS keystore and RH-SSO truststore, backed by persistent PostgreSQL database. The ASYM_ENCRYPT JGroups protocol is used for encryption of cluster traffic.

Other templates that integrate with RH-SSO are also available:

  • eap64-sso-s2i: RH-SSO-enabled Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 6.4.
  • eap70-sso-s2i: RH-SSO-enabled Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.0.
  • eap71-sso-s2i: RH-SSO enabled Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.1.
  • datavirt63-secure-s2i: RH-SSO-enabled Red Hat JBoss Data Virtualization 6.3.

These templates contain environment variables specific to RH-SSO that enable automatic RH-SSO client registration when deployed.

See Automatic and Manual RH-SSO Client Registration Methods for more information.